Dima opened his eyes, a second of blankness before he remembered where he was and why. The call could come at any time, they’d said. It was just after three. Bulganov’s voice was thick with fatigue. He told him when and where. He started to give directions, but Dima shut him up.

‘I know where it is.’

‘Just don’t fuck up, okay?’

‘I don’t fuck up. That’s why you hired me.’

You can read the first few chapters of Andy McNab’s novel ‘Battlefield 3 – The Russian’ online:

Story characters come to life at Overstrand’s Belfry School
October 21, 2011

Fantastic Mr Fox stepped out of the pages of Roald Dahl and into a north Norfolk classroom where he enjoyed a fantastic time with the likes of Alice in Wonderland, a number of hobbits and countless other storybook characters.

Pupils at Overstrand’s Belfry School dressed up as fictional favourites to mark the end of a six-week project all about books.

Their studies included reading, writing, designing and making books, according to head teacher Titus Cotton. And the school council decided to round-off the whole-school project with a fancy dress celebration.

“One boy came as Edgar Allan Poe with a cravat, slicked-down hair and a painted moustache,” said Mr Cotton, who turned up for school dressed as Wally from Where’s Wally? “We also had an Andy McNab in khaki fatigues, Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man, covered in tattoos, and one boy said he would go as the Invisible Man – and wouldn’t turn up to school!”

Events also included a book fair, run by the Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, a mass read-in involving all 105 pupils, aged four to 11, and competition for the best handmade bookmarks.

Mr Cotton added that the project had been hugely successful. He said: “It’s given them an absolute love of books.”

At an exhibition exploring the real life war stories that inspired Michael Morpurgo’s hugely popular novel War Horse and the hit stage show that followed it, Camilla unveiled a watercolour she has painted of a horse badly wounded in a terrorist attack.

The Duchess, who paints on days off at the country homes she shares with Prince Charles at Highgrove and Birkhall, presented the National Army Museum in London with her portrait of Sefton, a horse badly wounded in a 1982 IRA nail bomb attack on the Household Cavalry in Hyde Park.

The painting, finished by her at Birkhall last week, went on show with other pictures of old war horses painted on equine-shaped templates by celebrities including Alan Titchmarsh and SAS author Andy McNab on a wall of remembrance..

“Where you have a huge poor population and you start walking around around in wealthy areas, you’re a target for mugging, extortion and kidnap.”

These days, stories of hostage-taking and pirate activity at sea are becoming increasingly common. Just recently, the Kenyan tourist board warned European visitors to the country to stay away from travelling within 100 miles of the Somalian border, a month after Brit Judith Tebbutt was taken hostage at her Kenyan beach resort, along with her husband, who was shot dead.

Author and former SAS man Andy McNab is someone who knows a thing or two about the psychology behind kidnapping. The writer of the best-selling war book of all time, Bravo Two Zero author is involved with the MoD as well as the army.

McNab is also on the board of a military company specialising in negotiating with kidnappers for the release of hostages. Here he fills AskMen in on how you can keep yourself safe on your travels.

How do people find themselves in kidnap situations?
The way you see it in in the media is very clear cut: you’ve got a load of guys running around with machine guns, they’re pretty thick and they just pick people off of boats and demand money. In fact, it’s much more sophisticated than that. These lads are much more switched on, even to the point where they use social media, so they’ll go onto Facebook and hit Twitter just to see who’s blogging to say they’re going on holiday on a world cruise to the Seychelles. These guys get out there and go and find them.

What are kidnappers usually interested in?
It’s a mixture of people who get themselves into this situation. If you look at Paul and Rachel Chandler, they were just a retired couple on a yachting holiday.

If you’re on the coast of Africa, the interest of kidnappers isn’t so much in cargo; they’re interested in people because they know there’s emotion involved, and that people will do what they can to give money to get their families released. In South East Asia on the other hand, the kidnappers don’t give a shit about people; they’re more interested in the cargo, so you’re more likely just get shot and dumped off.

Where are you most at risk?
Wherever you have a huge poor population and you start walking around around in wealthy areas, you’re a target for mugging , you’re a target for extortion and you’re a target for kidnap.

The capital for this kind of activity is South America, and that’s where the kidnapping business that arose in the eighties started, in places like Columbia and Mexico. But the truth is, anywhere you present yourself as having loads of money you’re a target. That doesn’t mean you have to be a millionaire, because for example, 50 grand to a poor person in say, Mexico, is the equivalent of half a million to you or I.

So what’s your advice on keeping safe?
If you don’t have to go to these places, don’t go. And if you do go, don’t flaunt the fact that you’re well off. We all know that even if you’ve got your rip off Rolex you’re going to attract the wrong attention. Even in the UK, one of the reasons muggings are so high in Notting Hill is because people walk around with loads of bling on. So you’ve just got to be sensible.

How do you keep yourself alive you do get nabbed abroad?
Once you’re lifted, there are two thoughts of approach for the best next step. One theory says if you’ve got an opportunity to escape, then go for it and take your chances. The other theory is to not do that, because in certain places, you being kept alive is within the interests of the kidnappers.

If you know there’s going to be some process to get you out (for example you work for a company where they’ve got kidnapping insurance), then you stand a very high chance of getting out by not presenting yourself as a belligerent type of person. So if you are easy to deal with and you’re thankful for everything you get to the point of sub-ordinance, you’re effectively doing your job to stay alive and as healthy as possible.

The full story of The Gadget Show’s FPS gaming simulator build premiered on Channel 5 in the UK at 8pm on Monday 24th October 2011. This video contains the highlights.
Andy testing the simulator starts at 13.50min